Is laser on my face a good idea?(need help)

Hair Removal Methods Laser hair removal
#1

I’ve been giving this a lot of thought after being unable to find a competent electrolygist but they do offer me laser first and then they’ll do electrolysis to finish up the remaining hairs.
I want to do my upper cheecks above my beardline and between the eyebrows. heres a pic so you can get an idea of what the hair is like

http://img64.imageshack.us/img64/9804/70000296.jpg

problem is that there are very fine hairs above but there are also a lot of thick black hairs too. i mean they are perfect for laser? thats why they kept insisting laser reduction. So my idea here is to treat only that area and not the fine hairs, and then later i’ll have them treat the finer hairs with electro too?

I have an important question. I’ve heard that if you pluck hairs and then when they regrow they are more suitable for laser? Is this true? and how much time do I have to wait for the perfect time to get treatment?
I can get an appointment in 6 to 7 weeks. If I pluck the hairs now is it a good idea to get treatments by then? I’d be willing to do that if its true…

#2

The periorbital region should only be treated with electrolysis. Too close to the eyes for laser, plus some of the hairs would be too fine anyway.

It’s a relatively small area, so electrolysis shouldn’t be too lengthy.

No plucking! It can stimulate more growth. The only reason to remove hairs by the root before laser would be to synchronize the growth in the anagen phase before treatment. Tweezing facial hairs can lead to more growth, ingrown hairs, scarring, and discoloration. It can also distort follicles, making electrolysis more difficult and lengthy.

#3

Doesn’t sound good. Well the fine hairs you see wont be touched by the laser, it will always be atleast 1 inch under the eyes. i think you can kind of see where the dark hairs are from the picture. I’ve heard people have had laser like this before, but of cource if it’s too dangerous for the eyes I won’t even think about it.

Oh and I have plucked these areas for years. I have experienced all the terrible symptoms you described. I just wish there was an electrologist willing to do full clearence but they always start with the laser first…

#4

Hi!
You actually are perfect for laser hair removal looking at your skin tone and the color of your hair. Between the brows works really well and it usually is gone within three treatments. The only area you can’t get hair removal safely is in the orbital rim. Your hair is under the orbital rim (where your eye sinks in), and your eye brows, so you are ok! Your coarse hairs will be gone quicker than your fine hairs, but they eventually will be gone too. The only hair that the laser won’t treat well is fine peach fuzz like hair. Hope this helps, I wrote an article on hub pages if you want to read it.
http://hubpages.com/hub/The-Hairy-on-Laser-Hair-Removal

#5

Even if laser was safe for that area, most of the hairs the OP mentioned (above the beard line, not the beard itself) are too fine for treatment, as shown in the photograph.

There are about 20 coarse, dark hairs immediately above the beard-line. In any case, they could be gone for good with 5 min of electrolysis. Treating only these hairs with laser would require a small, ineffective spot size. With a decent spot size, some of the fine hairs would end up getting treated.

It’s not just that laser is ineffective for fine hairs - treating such areas (especially face) can induce MORE growth. Please read the FAQ. Laser only works on coarse, dark growth.

Yes, the glabella can be treated with laser, but is better off with electrolysis, which offers much needed precision in this area.

#6

Maybe I need to post new pictures because I have a lot more dark hairs now than before. it’s definitely not just 20. I’d say there’s atleast nearly 50 of the dark ones and many more lighter ones too. And the electrologists here are nowhere near as good as the people on this site. but I do wonder how long it would all take for a skilled person to do it.

The part of induced growth does concern me but to be honest there’s not much thin hair under the orbital trim together with the thick hairs. all the technicians ensure me that it can’t happen but i dont know.

#7

Even if you have 100 hairs, electrolysis would be far preferable to Laser. My husband’s upper cheek is exactly the same as yours and we intend to do electrolysis here. I would never dream of suggesting Laser to him. With Laser, you carry a real risk of stimulating those finer hairs to become thicker as well.

Let’s say you had 100 hairs you wanted removed. A fast electrologist could clear them in well under 30mins for you. A slow electrologist my take an hour, but that’s it. Either way, it will be effective. Quick clearance and even quicker and easier maintenance until one day you will see that 4 weeks have gone by and not a single coarse hair has made an appearance.

#8

The hairs on your cheek are fine and are at risk of being stimulated. The hairs in the lower jaw portion of that photo are course enough for laser. However, precision is necessary, so I would be concerned that they wouldn’t do it well. With electrolysis, you have more control of what gets removed.

Clinics will offer up whatever takes them less time, unfortunately. They’re not necessarily thinking of what’s in your best interests. They’re thinking laser will cost the same or they can even charge more and it will be done in 5 mins.

#9

It sounds to me like electrolysis is effective on these thick dark hairs? I mean how many times would I have to get cleared to get rid of those?

I think this is the real issue here. I really got that impression from them. One flat out told me “I don’t feel like going through all of that”(about electrolysis) so yeah a couple of zaps from the laser probably seems more appealing to them.
I can keep trying to push them, or have even more intake appointments to try my luck with others as well and finally find someone who is willing to do it. But those appointments cost money too.

#10

Just keep plugging away until you find a nice well skilled electrolysis person. Try to find someone who does not even offer LASER, and you won’t run into the Laziness Factor.

While good electrolysis will permanently remove each treated hair the first time, your hair growth cycles will bring about new hairs from different follicles in the same general area such that you will have to retreat the area every 4 to 6 weeks for 9 to 18 months. On this schedule, it has been my experience that one would have +/- 13 appointments, of increasingly shorter duration, spread out over 18 months.

If it takes an hour to clear the area at the start, you will soon be doing 45 minute clearances, followed by 30 minutes to finished, and 15 minutes from start to finish in the latter appointments. Your final appointment could be as little as 5 minutes long.

#11

Electrolysis works on any hair. It just treats hairs one at a time.

As James mentioned, electrolysis kills hairs right away. But you have a lot more hairs than what you can see now since hair grows in cycles. You’ll still need treatments over 12-18 months about once a month.

#12

Thanks for the replies. I would just like to know if I plucked hairs again, how much time EXACTLY would the hairs grow back again and be in the right stage of hair growth and therefor at the right cycle for LHR? is it diffirent for cheecks and unibrow area? or is it both around 6 weeks(?)

#13

I’d say 6-8 weeks is okay to wait for the face.

#14

Alright well I just booked an appointment for July 25th. That is almost 6 weeks. but not quite between 6-8 weeks, but is this still good enough? I’m sure I’ll have the hair back by then and then it’s perfect timing to get laser. I hope.

I plucked about 200 hairs today. I actually have more but I only plucked the thickest and darkest ones.

So yeah I decided to go through with this. Hopefully I will have very effective laser treatments on the dark hairs with laser and because of how I timed the anagen stages of my hair growth and all of that, I think I’ll quit after 6 laser treatments after 7 months or so, and then finish up with electrolysis.

Thoughts? I’m gonna keep updating this thread.

#15

That should be fine.

#16

Treatment went well I think.

I was treated with 9 mm lightsheer diode 34 joules. felt pretty intense but it was over very quickly.

next appointment in 6 weeks. is the shedding and whole process gonna be faster since it’s the face?

#17

Don’t preschedule appts. You may not have much to treat at 6 weeks. See how shedding goes in 3 weeks. If more than 10% doesn’t shed, you may need a touchup on missed hairs at that point. If all is good, you may not have enough hair to treat until 8 or 10 weeks.

#18

They actually told me to call them for a new appointment so it’s good, I can wait it out.

#19

I just wanted to give a heads up for anyone interested, as it’s been over half a year since my 6th laser treatment on my face.

The first few months after my last treatment it seemed like a big fail. Induced hairgrowth all over with nothing gone it seemed. But at this moment all of the thickest hairs(you can spot those on the picture i posted before i started) are gone and all the hair has become very thin and smaller, so it’s all very unnoticable. Looks really good.

I’m just a bit confused on how I’m seeing good results much longer after my last treatment.

#20

can you send any pictures?